Villanueva now ahead of McDonnell in LA County Sheriff’s race by more than 22,000 votes

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Retired LA County sheriff’s Lt. Alex Villanueva, left, and current LA County Sheriff Jim McDonnell faced off in the Nov. 6 2018 runoff election. Villanueva was leading as of Wednesday, according to semi-official election results. (Courtesy photo of Villanueva, Daily News staff photo of McDonnell)

Retired Sheriff’s Lt. Alex Villanueva significantly expanded his lead against Sheriff Jim McDonnell by 22,192 votes based on the latest tallies released by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder late Tuesday afternoon Nov. 13.

“We are thrilled about today’s results from the L.A. County Registrar in the race for Sheriff,” Villanueva said in a statement. “With the recent counts showing our lead continuing to grow, it’s clear that Los Angeles County voters are ready to reform, rebuild, and restore the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department.”

In an interview with Southern California News Group Tuesday, McDonnell said that he was still optimistic the final count would declare him victorious, saying there was still an estimated 686,000 votes left to be counted.

“We are in unusual times,” McDonnell said. “I’m optimistic with that many votes left, this race can turn around.”

Based on exit polling conducted by researchers at Loyola Marymount University, the trend experienced Tuesday is expected to continue in the next round of vote tallies to come on Friday. The county has until Nov. 30 to officially certify the results.

Fernando Guerra, a professor and director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount, who led the exit polling of 1,500 voters, predicted Villanueva would win the race by 53 percent. Based on the latest results, Villanueva had 50.6 percent of the vote.

Vote-by-mail ballots returned early tended to favor McDonnell in the race, while provisional and vote-by-mail ballots submitted on election day leaned toward Villanueva, Guerra said.

“It depends on what they are still counting,” Guerra said.

The registrar processed an additional 258,482 vote-by-mail ballots and 11,769 ballots from polling locations on Tuesday. Mike Sanchez, a spokesman for the registrar, said the delay was due to the effort it takes to verify signatures.

Hilda Marella Delgado, a spokeswoman for Villanueva, said a deciding factor in the race came down to support the campaign had from Democratic Party groups and other independent expenditure committees. The goal was to paint McDonnell as a conservative and equate the Sheriff’s policy of allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers into L.A. County jails as a testing ground for the Trump administration.

McDonnell denied the claim, saying he has been both a registered Democrat and Republican throughout his life and for at least the past 15 years he has been politically independent.

“As a police executive you should be non partisan,” McDonnell said. “During an election you say whatever you want, but when it comes down to doing the job, you are required to follow the law and run an organization that’s effective and in a way that protects the public.”

If he wins, Delgado said that Villanueva would also enforce the law as it relates to immigration enforcement, but also abide by California Senate Bill 54, the so-called sanctuary law, which bars local authorities from asking about immigration status during routine interactions and minor infractions. But the law is currently facing legal challenges.

David Rosenfeld has been working as a professional journalist for nearly 20 years at newspapers, magazines and websites. He's covered murder trials, interviewed governors and presidential candidates and once did a flip in a biplane for a story assignment. Before joining The Daily Breeze in 2018 to cover El Segundo, Hawthorne and aerospace, he worked at The Beach Reporter in Redondo Beach. In his free time, David loves outdoor sports such as sailing, mountain biking and golfing.